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I would suggest sending this to anyone who thinks Rudy is competent. Many of you may know this stuff... but this video is short and would be great to send your friends and family who may not quite understand this...

http://therealrudy.org/

 The fact that he laughs when asked about the location of the command center... and that people died because of him is really quite disturbing... 

This morning, ten major U.S. businesses and four national environmental organizations issued a joint report, A Call to Action (pdf file), calling on the federal government to quickly pass strong national legislation to cut global warming pollution.

You can watch the press conference live this morning on CSPAN at 11:30am Eastern. You will also be able to watch it online at CSPAN.org.

The companies involved in today's announcement are well-known Fortune 500 corporations: Alcoa, BP America, Caterpillar, Duke Energy, DuPont, Florida Power and Light, General Electric, Lehman Brothers, Pacific Gas & Electric, and PNM Resources.

They have joined Environmental Defense, the World Resources Institute, Pew Center on Global Climate Change, and Natural Resources Defense Council to form an unprecedented alliance -- the United States Climate Action Partnership (US-CAP).

In today's announcement, the partners pledged to work together to support six recommendations for national action:

Tom Vilsack is running for president.

The Iowa governor plans to formally launch his bid for the 2008 Democratic nomination today, one of his top political aides said Wednesday.

Vilsack, who leaves office in January, will file papers today to establish his presidential campaign committee, aides said. The step marks the first official move by any politician among the large field of Democrats and Republicans weighing campaigns for president.

RICHMOND -- An estimated 200 votes, all of them in Isle of Wight County, remained uncounted early today at mid-day as election workers began reviewing the results of Virginia's cliffhanger Senate race, state leaders said.

Jean Jensen, secretary of the state board of elections, said the remaining 2,442 precincts have reported their vote counts. The number of untallied ballots is well below the 7,312-vote lead that Democrat Jim Webb holds over incumbent Republican Sen. George Allen.

The Senate race is expected to be Virginia's third statewide election recount in the Commonwealth's history. Attorney General Bob McDonnell was elected last year by a 360-vote margin after a recount. In 1989, former Gov. Douglas Wilder was declared the victor after a recount.

Jensen said a computer malfunction in Isle of Wight has delayed a final vote count for that county.

"The votes are fine," she said. "It's just the machines are locked up. The votes are in there."

The precinct in limbo has 383 registered voters, said William Bell, secretary of the county's electoral board. He said turnout for the county was about 57 percent, meaning the number of uncounted votes should be around 200.

Because the results show Webb winning by less than 1 percent -- 0.31 percent to be exact -- Allen will have the opportunity to request a recount.

The Republican may file a request with Richmond courts after the State Board of Elections certifies the final vote on Nov. 27. That means the final result of the race could remain unresolved until December.

Still uncounted are an estimated 2,000 "provisional votes," ballots filled out by people who could not be confirmed on Tuesday as legally registered voters. Jensen said about 4,000 provisional votes were reviewed in last year's recount for the attorney general race, and only 700 of them were determined to be legal votes.

Also, some bad robo-calls went out from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in places like New London and Old Saybrook. DCCC spokesman Bill Burton confirms the problem, which directed people to their primary polling place, which is different from the general election polling place. He says the calls were stopped as soon as the problem was brought to their attention, corrected, and then resumed with the correct information. He believes "a small number" of the thousands of robo-calls being made in Connecticut were incorrect. - MSNBC

Well, I fin'ly started thinkin' straight
When I run outa things to investigate.
Couldn't imagine doin' anything else,
So now I'm sittin' home investigatin' myself!
Hope I don't find out anything . . . hmm, great God!" - Dylan

From NBC's Doug Adams and the "Make Your Vote Count" team
There were long lines this morning in Denver outside some polling places, where hundreds lined up to wait. Among them was Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill Ritter, who spent several hours waiting in a line outside a voting center in Washington Park in Denver.

We talked with Alton Dillard, the spokesman for the Denver City Election Commission, and it appears that the problem has to do with the electronic "pollbook" and not the voting machines themselves. Pollbooks are the electronic connections that link precincts to the city's master list of registered voters.

Similar problems with this type of "electronic pollbook" caused massive problems in Maryland's Montgomery County during the September primary.

Voters were slowed up when they checked into the voting center because the pollbooks experienced system slowness. The poll workers apparently called into the county elections office to check on individual voters, which created larger lines. However, the precincts were all equipped with Adobe PDF versions of the entire city's poll listing. When asked why those were not used, the spokesman admitted: "Good question."

Voting experts are watching Denver closely this year, in part because the city is implementing a new system of "vote centers" this year. They have eliminated more than 400 neighborhood precincts and folded them into 55 "vote centers." These larger vote centers are designed to allow people to vote anywhere within the city - instead of having to go their local neighborhood precinct. They generally are located in high-traffic areas such as shopping malls.

As Kim Brace, our election expert, puts it: Using these vote centers for more than 350,000 registered voters in Denver is "like putting a full stream of water through a small funnel."

Richard Davies, a business consultant, said, "I voted at Wellshire Presbyterian Church for 15 years and was in and out in 20 minutes each time. Only the city of Denver can break something that doesn't need fixing."

The problem centered on computer registration, poll workers said. They had 16 ballot booths but only four registration booths.

Election officials said computers went down at the Syracuse Voting Plaza and by 8:05 a.m., another problem had arisen at the Risen Christ Voting Center.

Voters in suburban areas seemed to be experiencing fewer delays.

The headquarters for Jay Fawcett's campaign for Colorado's 5th Congressional District was vandalized overnight and a death threat - the third such threat - was also emailed to Fawcett. Both incidents have been reported to the police.

As voters headed to the polls, Fawcett campaign volunteers arriving at campaign offices were greeted with a vile "Skunk" aroma, making it virtually impossible to conduct work there. The campaign is expecting more than 200 people to come through the offices today to help with Get Out The Vote and Poll Watching efforts.

"Don't let these hooligans deter you from exercising your Constitutional right to vote," said Fawcett. "It's time to take a stand against these attacks."

This is the second time the Fawcett Campaign has been vandalized. Last Tuesday the Campaign Finance Director's car was covered in the skunk smell, while parked out front of the El Paso County Republican Office.

"I find it disgusting that, as we are fighting for Democracy in Iraq, people are besmirching Democracy here in Colorado Springs," said Fawcett Campaign Manager Wanda James. "Death threats and childish illegal activities will not deter us from getting out the vote to victory today."